Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily. A block below canal street in lower Manhattan, just a few hundred yards from City ...

Pop culture fuels katana revival, but Japan’s swordsmiths struggle to survive Sparks flying as swordsmith Akihira Kawasaki forges steel with a mechanical hammer at Kawasaki's workshop in Misato, ...

Sparks fly in the soot-covered studio of swordsmith Akihira Kawasaki each time his apprentice hammers red-hot steel, showcasing the millennium-old craft behind Japanese swords now enjoying a ...

Sparks illuminate the soot-covered studio of Japanese swordsmith Akihira Kawasaki as his apprentice hammers red-hot steel, showcasing a millennium-old craft enjoying a resurgence in popularity.

Sparks illuminate the soot-covered studio of Japanese swordsmith Akihira Kawasaki as his apprentice hammers red-hot steel, showcasing a millennium-old craft now enjoying a resurgence in popularity.

A traditional swordsmith in Japan says growing pop culture interest is bringing new, younger audiences to the centuries-old art of katana making. In Saitama Prefecture, 57-year-old swordsmith Akihira ...

MISATO, Saitama, Japan — Sparks illuminate the soot-covered studio of Japanese swordsmith Akihira Kawasaki as his apprentice hammers red-hot steel, showcasing a millennium-old craft now enjoying a ...

Despite the rapidly greying, shrinking population of blademakers in Japan, their fine steel swords known as katana are amassing a new generation of fans, particularly younger women, on the back of pop ...